Action Alert on School Cuts; Our Housing Bill Passes House; Bad Oil News

March 22, 2013 Voice Your Opinions! Letters to the editor make a difference. You can send a 175-word letter to the Anchorage Daily News by e-mail (letters@adn.com); or by fax or mail (call them at 257-4300). Send letters to the Anchorage Press via e-mail editor@anchoragepress.com or by mail to 540 E. Fifth Ave, Anchorage, 99501. Feel free to call us if you need factual information to help you write a letter. Contact the Governor. The Governor can be reached at 269-7450; sean.parnell@alaska.gov; or www.alaska.gov. Contact us. My office can be reached at: 716 W. 4th Ave, Anchorage, AK 99501; by phone: 269-0106; visit my website at http://gara.akdemocrats.org; or email: Rep.Les.Gara@akleg.gov

Dear Neighbors,

You ever have a disaster that could have hurt you, and you survived?  Got stuck in mud while fishing and didn’t drown?  Almost got hit by a car?  Well, that’s what this week was like.  In a partisan session, where one party controls the House, Senate and Governor’s Office, we have a system that breeds partisanship instead of one that moves the state forward. That never works well, whichever party is in charge.  So, it’s a good week when I can share good and bad news with you.  That’s what kind of session this is. 

Short Summary: 

1. Monday we need your testimony, or e-mails, on a running four years of education cuts, vouchers, and other controversial education policy running through this building.  Read on.
    
2. We passed a good housing bill in the House that was brought to me by constituents, and that I then found a Republican co-sponsor to file with me.  She’s done good work, and worked hard on this bill with us.  In short, we wrote the bill together – bipartisan work that should happen more often in a legislature where bipartisanship is frowned upon, and where too many committee chairs block bills by members of the opposing political party. The bill is on its way to the Senate.  It will allow good community planning, supermarkets, restaurants, coffee shops, non-profits like day care centers and other things in Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC) financed or owned housing – something that is curiously banned under current law.  And by doing that, the full price rentals to commercial businesses will allow AHFC to build additional middle income and low income housing to ease Alaska’s terrible affordable  housing shortage.  My statements on this bill are below.
    
3. A bad oil tax bill just passed the Senate, giving roughly $1 to $2 billion per year away in state revenue when oil prices are high, and companies are raking in windfall profits.  Alaskans should share fairly in that, and not give that money away.  That part of the law gives the $1 to $2 billion per year to ConocoPhillips, Exxon and BP with permission to spend it anywhere in the world they want.  That, folks, is a giveaway.  We’ve proposed tying reasonable breaks to production spending in Alaska, which would work, but of course, would stop oil companies from taking our money to Russia, Libya or other places.  They got what they wanted on the Senate side and that bill is coming to the House.  Here’s a synopsis of the debate on that bill.

Schools:  A 4th Year in a Row of Teacher and Staff Firings?  Monday, Say “I’m Mad as ____ and Won’t Take It Anymore!”

Firing teachers, guidance counselors, job counselors and support staff doesn’t make our schools more vibrant.  But with the Governor’s budget we’ll lose another 200 positions in Anchorage, and many other schools statewide will suffer a fourth year in a row of educator cuts. 

We need your testimony Monday.  Information for providing testimony is below. Can’t call in?  Then we need your help.  Do you oppose public funding of private schools, which will take even more money from our public school system (and create two camps of legislators – those who want to fund private schools and those who want to fund public schools – so both get underfunded).  Then sign this petition.

But more importantly, we need your testimony to stop the fourth year of school cuts in Anchorage, Kenai, Mat-Su, Kodiak and other places.  Right now legislators are blocking any meaningful school funding legislation that would serve to avoid next year’s significant school cuts, or make up for the last three years of cuts.  Cutting school staff moves academic achievement backwards, not forwards.

Testimony can be provided Monday from 1-3 pm at your Legislative Information Office (call 269-0111 for directions).  Or for those of you in Juneau, testimony will be in Room 203.

We’ll take testimony on other subjects.  Maybe you oppose the House cuts in our very inadequate Pre-K program.  The House GOP, over my objection, has cut $480,000 from the state’s $2.4 million Pre-K program, which is barely starting and only serves about 300 students so far.  It has cut $242,500 for our more conservative Parents as Teachers Pre-K program, which allows parents who don’t want their kids in a Pre-K class to get training to help their children develop their intellectual capability before age 4.  And except for two years I and others worked and succeeded in increasing state Head Start funding for Pre-K for low income students, we’ve flat-funding Head Start for over 15 years, eating away that funding. 

Or maybe you oppose the proposed constitutional amendment to divert public funds to private schools.

Basically, we want vibrant public schools so children can reach their dreams.  And we want vibrant Pre-K which all studies show makes children more successful in school, in jobs after graduation, and in terms of high school and college graduation.

Finally, here is my statement on the bill Rep. Costello and I are working on, and that passed the House this week:

Housing Bill to Make Communities Vibrant, expand Affordable Housing, Passes House

Today, Representative Les Gara (D-Anchorage) issued the following statement on a bill sponsor Mia Costello (R-Anchorage) and he as a co-sponsor wrote and worked on together.  The bill, HB 50, passed the House today.  A description of the bill is more fully detailed in a press release sent out by the House Republican Press Office today.

“Smart community planning in most cities allows residential housing to be combined with services neighbors need, like grocery stores, restaurants, day care, and other services that make communities more vibrant.  Currently AHFC, in the housing it builds or finances, cannot allow commercial or non-profit services to be located in their complexes.  That’s poor community planning, and AHFC, Rep. Costello and I have been working to change this.  That’s what HB 50 does.

“We want to make sure that communities are vibrant, and that the state doesn’t engage in poor community planning.  Rep. Costello and I learned of another important benefit of the bill after we wrote it – that by allowing full rent to be charged to businesses, AHFC and developers can make these projects more economic, and can likely build additional units to ease our housing shortage for low and middle income, and other Alaskans. 

“I am thankful for all of Rep. Costello’s strong work on this bill, and it has been a pleasure to do bi-partisan work together to move Alaska forward. This is an example of how the Legislature should work.

The Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC) builds and finances low, mixed, market rate and senior housing across Alaska.

My Best,